Saturday, January 9, 2010

Eggs!

It's no real secret that I would love to add a female Red-bellied parrot and a female Cape parrot to my flock. I've come to terms with the fact that I will have to wait for the female Cape parrot since the price tag is quite high ($2800 CAD) and I just can't justify that type of spending on a bird alone (plus the added cost of a cage, some more toys, vet check-up, extra food, etc, etc) while we are saving to buy a house in the next few years. Also, although we just moved to a bigger space, the bird room has the space for an extra cage like the ones I have my other Pois in (in fact, there is an empty cage like that sitting in there now), but that size is too small for a Cape and I don't have the space for the proper size cage. So yes, the Cape parrot will remain a "dream bird" for now.

But this is not the case for the female Red-bellied. I already have a cage for it. I have a lot of toys suited for that size bird so I wouldn't have to buy as many to begin with. The food would be the same as what I'm already buying. The initial cost of just the bird is considerably less than the Cape parrot ($500-$600 CAD from a breeder) and I can justify spending that much even though we are saving for a house. The only issue I had was finding a breeder. There use to be one in the area, in fact Joey originally came from that person, but for health reason, she stopped breeding. So I had to look elsewhere. Luckily, a friend of mine in Guelph told me about a women from her parrot club who does have a breeder pair. I contacted her this past summer and I have met her at the last Canadian Parrot Conference and have kept contact with her. Well, yesterday I got news that the pair is sitting on eggs! She doesn't know how many since she hasn't been able to take a peak yet, but I'm hoping for fertile eggs and crossing my fingers that if they are fertile, there is at least a female in the clutch.